


Naive

by Colamiilk



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Betting, Flirting, Giriko is Saw, Just like in canon but in case you're lost, Justin is tired and confused, M/M, Manipulation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pretend Dating... or is it?, Undercover Missions, there you go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:01:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21917197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Colamiilk/pseuds/Colamiilk
Summary: Saw had made an agreement, infiltrate the academy with Medusa, wake up the Kishin and his madness, and get Arachne back. The role he had in the whole plan as a simple mechanic was easy enough, or at least would be if it weren't for the fact that everyone expected him to play nice and go out with all of these kiss ups. He needed an excuse, a distraction... something, or rather someone that'd get everyone off his back.
Relationships: Giriko/Justin Law
Comments: 32
Kudos: 38





	1. Prospects

**Author's Note:**

> Straight out of Gabriel right into Naive. I've had this on standby since August but wanted to finish up Gabriel first. This is just a taste, a preview, an entry. Setting the stage so to speak. It's way wayyy shorter than my normal chapter lengths but I feel like it works well here aha

The naive, dumb, overly-affectionate ones were always the easiest to pick as a partner. They’d never catch on, they’d never need more than a rose or a kiss every once in awhile and they’d provide a perfect hiding spot. No one was suspicious of a guy who was happily committed. No one would raise an eyebrow at the antisocialness of a guy who wanted to get back to his partner. Being ‘in love’ was one of the best ways to hide in plain sight. It was the best way Saw had found to get everyone off his back and dismiss any odd mannerisms that otherwise people would call him out for.

That’s why when he was brought to Death City as a mechanic, he needed to find someone fast. There was no way he was going to be able to handle more than a few days socializing with a bunch of kiss ups, he  _ needed  _ someone who’d give him the excuse to bolt at the end of the day every day. He was not going to fail his mission here, he was not going to let his past 800 years of bullshit be for nothing. 

Only problem; there was fucking no one but kids and teachers here. There wasn’t  _ anyone  _ that’d give him a good hiding place, no one who could get him out of socializing and give him a place where he wouldn’t have to be so overly cautious about everything. It was making him sweat the slightest bit. He was sure he could do it anyway… until a couple days had past. He should’ve known better than to have trusted that witch. Agreeing to help her awaken the kishin was a mistake. He was getting too impatient here. Too desperate to speed this entire thing up. He should be back in Loew watching over Arachne’s soul and waiting like she had told him to. This was plan was hopeless, something he shouldn’t even be doing. This was-

“Of course Sid! You should already know that I’ll always come when I’m needed!” The high pitched sing songy voice was so loud that it screeched through Saw’s thoughts with a vengeance. It grated on his ears like nails on a chalkboard and made his shoulders bunch up with a pained irritation. Looking up with a horrible glare Saw was at a fucking loss to see a sparkling, glowing blonde walking side by side with one of the academy’s elites. It was hard to really see him under the heavy formless blob of clothes he was wearing but even still Saw could tell the guy was lithe and small. Pretty for damn sure, but more than that he looked like a fucking idiot. He was perfect.

He was more than perfect, he was going on and on about how much he  _ loved  _ and  _ trusted  _ and had  _ faith _ . He was beaming, broadcasting to everyone in a 10 meter radius how much of an overly dependent airhead he was… It was like he wanted to get picked up by someone who’d tell him sugar sweet lies and make him feel good and soft about harsh reality. He was going to be so unbelievably  _ easy _ . Saw already knew he could convince the blonde that pigs could fly within a few minutes. This guy was a fucking heaven sent.

The elite dragging the little moron along was starting to get far enough away that it was hard for Saw to see them. He stepped up a few more rungs of the ladder he was on and leaned over to see where they were going. It looked like the academy member was rounding the blonde down towards the stairways… the stairways that lead to the academy dungeons. Fuck. Were they going to kill him? Lock him up? What could they possibly want with the guy down there? What harm could a tiny fella like that do? Saw bit his lip slightly as the two disappeared down the stairs.  _ Fuck _ . He couldn’t have things working out like this, he needed that idiot. What kind of sick joke was it to show him someone so perfect and then just kill them? 

“You looking at Justin?” Jumping out of his skin Saw looked down at one of the other mechanics in a quiet irritation. He was busy he didn’t want to talk, especially not to these- wait. Did they know who that guy; who  _ Justin  _ was? Suddenly very interested in talking Saw slid down the ladder he was working on. The other mechanics looked shocked, amazed by Saw’s sudden interest after he had spent the last few weeks only saying the bare minimum as to not be overly rude. 

“I am. What do you know about the guy?” They all looked slightly uncomfortable, all sharing a few glances in between each other before looking back at Saw with what was almost pity. Fuck. Was the academy really set to kill him? No… it didn’t look like that from their expressions… was it that Justin was already married? That seemed more likely… Saw wouldn’t be all that surprised to hear that someone else had already sunk their claws into that mess. After all the guy was obviously real fucking easy prey. That’d really put a damper on things though. This was by far the best lead he had on finding someone to hide him. If things fell through like this he’d be back to barely scraping by without any lead on how to actually secure himself here. 

“Uh… he’s one of the academy’s Death Scythes.” Saw’s head clunked to the side in confusion. Wait what? That was a Death Scythe? That blonde airhead? What the fuck was Death smoking these days? Did their standards go down by that much? One of the mechanics threw her head back to make a sharp barking laugh, clearly more than just amused by Saw’s reaction. The way she smirked at him, thin and mocking when she was done made Saw’s blood boil. She was looking for a fight here, or rather… a game. Saw knew he should just ignore her now and figure out his plans from here in a calm relaxed way as to not blow his cover. 

But hell if he was going to do that. 

This was only interesting thing this mind numbing town had to offer so far, like hell he was going to let it pass by and increase the irritability bubbling under his skin. He raised a brow at her, smiling back with sharp teeth that dared her to go ahead and say what she clearly wanted to. There was no harm in listening after all, this could all be something something entirely innocent, but even if it wasn’t… Saw was really starting to miss the spice of danger. 

“So you're interested in Justin over there? You wanna get with Lord Death’s star pupil? With a celibate holy brother? I like to see you try, I’ll fucking  _ pay  _ you if you can pull it off. I want to see you try and fail.” Saw’s mouth twitched into a frown hearing that description, yeah ok, that guy might be more trouble than he's worth… but now it was a challenge. He wasn’t going to back down now that there was pride involved here. Celibate brother Death lover whatever, the bastard still looked brainless, he probably was brainless if all of that was true. It’d be easy to fucking sweep him off his feet. He was probably touch starved and dying to let go being caught up in all that shit. Saw could do this, he had been romancing dumb fucks since this academy had been fucking built, there was no way he was going to fail to some dumb brat. 

“Deal. You better be willing to pay up when I bring him down here to rub it in your face.”


	2. Newcomer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is short + in my old writing style bc it was written in august, but its the last short chapter before we get into the chaos >:3c

Saw didn’t  _ plan  _ to waste any time looking for and romancing Justin, he wanted to throw the others into shock with how easy this was for him, but the guy was fucking impossible to find. Where even was he? The other mechanics had been no help, they told him to just ‘listen for music’ as if that was any help. This city was fairly big so a hint like that was completely useless, he needed some kind of location to loiter around and spot Justin in, not a weird cryptic message. Plus what even was the guy? Snow white? Why did he have music following him around? 

Shoving his hands into his pockets Saw sighed and moved to head down the academy’s far too long stairs, ready to go home and end this waste of time. He’d try somewhere else tomorrow, the guy had to be somewhere after all. Saw wasn’t going to give up here, his pride wouldn’t allow it. Kicking some of the dust up he looked down at the puff of sand for a second. It was only a second, but then he felt someone brush by. Someone he didn’t notice before, someone heading towards the worker entrances that Saw had originally come out of. There was a hint of static singing. Buzzing by with a sweet melody. Music. 

Saw turned on his heel in such a rush it was almost embarrassing. Sure enough he saw Justin walking by, dark black vestments, pure white cloak, blaringly loud earbuds. He was moving like he was on a mission, not quite rushing, but definitely at a pace that said he wasn’t going to stop for anyone. Saw grimaced. He looked a lot less bright and cheerful like this. A lot less daft and dumb. He was still beautiful though, probably a fair share more than when Saw originally saw him, but maybe that was just because he was up close now. 

“Hey!” Justin didn’t stop for a second, didn’t acknowledge Saw in the slightest, didn’t even  _ react  _ to the voice calling for his attention. It was like he couldn’t hear the enchanter at all, despite the fact that they were still in pretty close range. Saw’s eyes narrowed in irritation for a second, before widening back up in realization. Oh. He probably  _ couldn’t  _ hear with those ear phones. How fucking annoying. 

This guy really was going to be a pain in the ass, that woman hadn’t been joking. Saw grit his teeth and moved after the bastard, he was not going to miss this chance. He had been waiting around random places for  _ hours  _ these past few days, this was his first hint of the guy. He wasn’t going to let him slip through his fingers. Justin was  _ his _ . He was going to get his hands on the guy. 

“I said  _ hey _ , where are you off to in such a rush?” His voice was too threatening. He needed to dial it back. He was trying to get the guy to blush and feel that warm fluttering people always talked about. He was  _ not  _ going to get that done being mean. Sighing out his nose Saw tried to calm himself down as his hand moved to grab onto Justin’s shoulder. His hand slipped through air. 

Justin had turned around and put space between them rapidly, he had noticed Saw with that and was now looking at the mechanic with a confused quirked up brow. Surprisingly he didn’t look mad at the less than kind comment. Saw mentally hit himself when he remembered that, yeah, Justin hadn’t heard past his earbuds. That just brought up the question of how the guy knew to turn around though. This was… None of this had been what Saw was expecting. Justin was a lot less straightforward than he had appeared down in the work rooms. He was almost the slightest bit interesting. Almost.

Waiting for the other to take out his earbuds he got the slightest bit frustrated when nothing ended up happening. He mimed for Justin to remove them, his temper only growing when the guy smiled in a weird piteous kind of way. What a little shit. This must be why no one had gone after him yet. Besides his naivety and beauty, he was  _ horrible _ . Saw could tell already. Bets aside though… Saw still wasn’t sure if there was anyone better. Justin might be insufferable already but being this close… Well, Saw was realizing that they guy was real young. Not a fucking baby like all the kids here, but definitely not old enough to know what should to expect in relationships. Which meant he wouldn’t realize what Saw was doing. Meaning he’d probably fall fast and hard without considering what was actually happening. That was a major advantage here. 

“Can I help you? I’d love to hear what you have to say but I really am busy.” Snapping out of his thoughts Saw grimaced and leaned back on his heels. He felt uncharacteristically guilty thinking about his plans right in front of the kid like this. He wasn’t sure why he felt bad though… was it the guy’s surprisingly melodic voice? The fact that he was being firm but still weirdly polite despite the fact that Saw had been on the edge of just straight up glowering at him? He supposed it wasn’t worth thinking too hard about, he should just be glad he hadn’t completely scared the little guy off already. He was being sloppy about this… He had been thrown off so completely at the change in atmosphere around Justin that he had forgotten how he was supposed to be acting. 

“Yeah I-” Saw’s mind flickered through the precious few things he had heard about Justin, Death’s student, a Death Scythe, a zealot, a music freak… “I heard you were the person to talk to about Lord Death’s mission, I was never really a student but I’d like to learn.” The words tasted bitter and poisonous on Saw’s tongue. Centuries of hatred long repressed and pushed down boiled quietly somewhere deep inside him. He was able to keep his smile though, able to keep a sincere tone and look shy and embarrassed about it. 

Justin looked shocked. The kid froze up slightly before trying to recompose himself. Apparently this wasn’t a question he got asked very often at all, apparently no one else was interested in Lord Death’s nonsense. Saw tried to ignore the petty pleasure that wrapped hot around his soul with that. Feelings like this weren’t productive. Worse than that actually, they were dangerous to feel too much and let on to the people around him. 

“I… Suppose I am?” Justin didn’t look in a hurry anymore, he was giving Saw his full undivided attention now. Perfect. That was well worth the pain that stabbed hot and painful through him and left him feeling disgusting and emasculated. He had already got his hands on Justin with those few words, or at least… it seemed that way. Justin looked the slightest bit displeased with that request. It was obvious that he was going to do it, that he felt an obligation to do it, but Saw had been expecting something dumb and excited and bursting. This was weird. Was this guy ever going to do anything that made sense? 

“That’s great, you said you were busy right now though, so why don’t we meet up later? Does tomorrow work for you?” He needed him alone, without an easy out or excuse to get away 30 minutes in. He needed Justin’s attention for at least an hour or so and needed to make sure that any progress wouldn’t be ruined by ‘Oh I need to be somewhere!’. There was fucking nothing more frustrating than getting them giggly and warm only to have them remember that they had to go do something. It made everything take longer at best or at worst made them reconsider the encounter and decide they weren’t interested anymore. Saw wasn’t going to take that risk with Justin. 

“Tomorrow? I, uh, I suppose I could do that…” It was already painfully obvious that Justin wasn’t used to this at all. That he was just as naive about these things as Saw had thought he was. He wasn’t even thinking about rejecting, even though it was blatant that he did  _ not  _ want to talk about this or see Saw tomorrow. He almost felt bad for the kid. The words ‘ _ you don’t have to if you don’t want _ ’ were heavy on his tongue, but they were too risky to use. It’d be good to have the kid relax and realize how understanding and patient Saw was, but chances of Justin accepting and running away to never be seen again were too high. It wasn’t worth the gamble.

“Does this time work? We could meet here again.”  _ I’ll take you somewhere nice. _ Saw bit back that part. Justin was too jumpy, too cautious to say that now. He was smarter than he looked being uncomfortable and nervous about this, smelling something off about this situation. Saw supposed he was dealing with a Death Scythe though. The kid wouldn’t of survived getting this high up if he couldn’t tell when things were dangerous. Sadly, or rather luckily for Saw, he still wasn’t smart enough to realize that things could be just as risky outside of missions. Justin was goddamn lucky it was Saw he was dealing with and not some fucking serial killer. This was almost depressing to watch. 

“Okay. Sure… I can do that.” Justin’s head was bowed ever so slightly, used to taking thinly veiled orders like that. Saw frowned. The other didn’t even consciously realize he was responding to the firm targeted ‘questions’ that steered him in a specific direction that was hard to refuse. Which was expected, that’s why Saw had talked to him like that. He wanted to get what he wanted and so he left Justin with little option to run. Still… the fact that this kid was so receptive to it, that he fell in so perfectly,  _ combined  _ with the fact that everything everyone told him about Justin had to do with how he connected he was to Death… It made Saw’s stomach burn with an aggravated and confusing pain. Swallowing Saw tried to ignore it. He didn’t have time to deal with pointless anger about this. It was too risky to. This wasn’t a situation where he could mess around. 

“I’m looking forward to it then. See you soon Justin.” The scythe’s face turned the slightest petal pink with that. Obviously surprised to see that Saw knew his name, even though the mechanic  _ said  _ he had been told to talk to him. It was cute. It was cute and clear that the kid was already falling hook line and sinker. This was too easy. It had felt awful and bumpy at the start, looking the slightest bit bleak, but he had gotten it back in control perfectly. It wouldn’t be hard from here at all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought about rewriting this chapter bc its short and reads a bit weird, but set dressing is important and I wanted to empathize how much effort Giriko is putting into this lmaooo (He has soo much confidence and is sure he knows exactly whats happening... poor boy is in for a reality check soon)


	3. Disruption

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why all of these are ending up so short, I'm actually kind of mad like why am I having such a hard time writing all of a sudden? Maybe I should wait until I fix my writers block before publishing more but >:/ I won't XD I'm way too stubborn and want to just share my ideasssss augh 
> 
> Anyway! Sorry if this isn't very good, but! Starting to get to the fun, maybe ;v;)?

When Justin showed up the next day he was still in his vestments, still with his headphones… Saw grimaced. Ok, maybe it’d just be impossible to get Justin’s full attention off the bat. That was ok though, it was fine if Justin saw this as just another part of his job at first, they could work up from there. As long as he was here and listening it was fine. Disappointing, but fine. This wouldn’t have been a bet someone made if it was going to be as easy as just asking the kid out. 

“Hey, I was waiting for you.” Justin looked up at him with weirdly blank eyes and sort of stared for a second. It was kind of uncomfortable and Saw found himself stepping back slightly without his input. Justin seemed a lot less timid than yesterday, but also a lot less friendly. There was no telling if the guy’s polite and professional patience was  _ completely  _ gone, but it was definitely not as strong as it had been. Saw didn’t know if Justin was tired or what, but the atmosphere around Justin had shifted yet again and he was being forced to reevaluate how he was going to go about this.

It was starting to finally lay out in his mind though, he was getting a picture of what Justin was like. The guy was bright and bubbly with the people he knew, professional and polite with people in passing, and… this with the people he didn’t particularly want to be around. At least that's what it seemed like right now. Saw was less than thrilled to already have been dropped in the lowest category, but he also knew it  _ was  _ better than being at a professional and polite distance. Like this Justin was at least seeing him as more than a passing face. He was remembering Saw, recording a memory and making space in his mind to have thoughts and opinions about him. That was a first step. He was already making his place in Justin’s mind.

“Ah, I’m sorry, so what was it you wanted to ask about?” Saw blinked at Justin’s delayed response. It was so slow that he had honestly expected Justin to say nothing and wait for Saw to continue without his input. Whatever. It didn’t matter that much, Saw didn’t really care what Justin was like as long as this worked out, and now he knew to be a little more patient here. The kid was just… slow. Probably because he was blatantly uncomfortable. He should try and fix that… 

“Well let me introduce myself first, you don’t even know my name right now, do you?” Justin turned the slightest bit pink, realizing that, no, he absolutely did not know Saw’s name. He really was a ditz over there… He hadn’t noticed Saw never introduced himself yesterday, never thought to ask himself, didn’t try and ask now… Or maybe… Saw’s eyes narrowed the tiniest bit. 

Maybe it was that Justin didn’t want to know. That he was embarrassed to have been caught being rude and unprofessional trying to keep them as separated as possible. From the tiny minuscule wrinkles pulling up around the kid’s nose in a well hidden glare… it very well could be that. There was clearly something hiding deep under Justin’s polite, put together,  _ rehearsed  _ attitude. It was coming out with Saw forcing him into this situation… but it was clear there was so much practice in keeping it hidden that a simple change in routine wouldn’t bring it tumbling out to light. That made all of this a lot harder. There wasn’t going to be any sure fire method to make Justin swoon with the brat hiding himself like this… 

“Don’t be embarrassed it happens to the best of us, it can be hard if you meet a lot of people in a day. I’m Saw, it’s a pleasure.” The scythe looked almost intimidated by Saw, stiffening under what was obviously to him, a weird way of talking. Saw was really starting to wish he had paid more attention to that elite when he had first seen Justin… What was this brat used to? How were you supposed to talk to him? He seemed  _ threatened  _ by this understanding and kind persona. Almost angry… Saw might’ve gotten himself off the path of passing stranger but if this just fell flat into hatred it’d be hard to salvage. 

“Justin, so what was it you wanted to ask me?” Business. This brat wasn’t interested in anything further here. Honestly it didn’t even seem like he was interested in that. It was pretty obvious this was nothing more than an obligation to him here… that fucking sucked. Saw didn’t even want to hear about Lord Death’s shit. He had only brought that up because it was the only thing he knew about the kid. He thought Justin would get excited about the interest, not annoyed like this. 

“Actually I didn’t want to ask you anything-” Justin’s nose wrinkled up entirely this time, an undisguised expression of disgust for having his time wasted. Yep. There was definitely a lot hiding underneath this buzzing beautiful zealot. Justin seemed to realize that he was making an expression he wasn’t supposed to be pretty quickly though, and his face morphed from the disgust into, surprisingly not the confused intimidated blank it had been before. He was smiling now, beaming and warm in a way that felt… hollow. It was convincing but since Saw had literally just seen the shift it was coming across as more horrific than anything else. 

“Oh? Then why did you want to see me?” His voice sounded exactly the same as it did when he first turned around to ask Saw what he wanted. Back into practice. Back into a situation he was comfortable with. Back into seeing Saw as someone he wouldn’t have to remember. Saw’s lips pulled into a sharp smile of his own. He was _pissed_. Pissed at this kid for being able to so easily throw Saw back into his unimportant category. This was going to be more trouble than it was worth. This kid was a fucking nesting doll who had only cracked open because he was unsure of and unhappy with the situation he had somehow convinced himself he had to be in. Now he was all put back together and Saw’d have to start from scratch if he wanted to get anywhere… 

Gritting his teeth as subtly as he could Saw tried to keep this much more explosive than usual temper of his in check. He had cracked Justin open talking about Lord Death, that was a weird topic for the kid, a topic that made him shrink small and tiny with discomfort. It wasn’t a topic that’d get him any closer to the brat. It obviously just made Justin uncomfortable and unhappy and would make the scythe think of Saw as someone who made him uncomfortable and unhappy. It wasn’t the direction to go. But neither was this. Justin was obviously seeing him as a citizen that he as a Death Scythe had to serve, but not as an actual fucking person. They wouldn’t get anywhere like this. 

“I’m new around here, got called in for some of the work Death’s doing.” Justin’s eyebrow twitched a bit at the disrespectful way of saying Lord Death’s name. God. This kid definitely had a hell of a complex around all this shit. Saw supposed he should’ve expected that though. After all, the mechanics had said he was a holy brother, and he sure as shit was wearing the uniform of one… so being entangled in it was kind of a given. Still though. Shouldn’t he be used to this? He was young sure but… there was no way he hadn’t had people heckle him about this before. Was he this awful at it then too? Or was there just something about the way Saw was going about it? 

As much as Saw wanted to poke into it with how pissed off he was and how much he was suddenly and rapidly wanting to see this little bastard squirm, he knew that was not the way to go about it. He knew it was more than just a horrible way to go about this and that it’d probably leave him dead on the streets with this messed up town. He needed to take 3 giant steps back from anything to do with Justin and Lord Death. That wasn’t something that was going to get the kid to swoon and it was honestly just a hazard for him to keep messing with. He was doing this to hide and better secure his safety, it’d ruin the whole point to further endanger himself trying to get close to the bastard. 

“So, when I asked around about who to talk to, a lot of names popped up, but you seemed the most fun.” Justin’s face went bright embarrassed red and his expression knitted into something angry. It was clear he was not happy with the compliment. How long was that stick up his ass? Seriously… who got this worked up about being called fun? It wasn’t like Saw had said it in any kind of risque way. Was he just that surprised? Smiling sharp, with no remorse at making the other prickle Saw waited for his response. 

He was getting a lot looser about this, it was becoming clear that there was no point in designing his moves until he at least managed to get a little bit closer to the blonde. Right now Justin was just way too fucking unpredictable and weird, plus he needed to pried open again before he’d fall for anything. He was far more guarded than he looked, this was already more of a pain than the other mechanics had let on. 

“I- I think you got some bad information. Spirit would be far more interested in showing you the  _ fun  _ Death City has to offer, Sid would also be good if you prefer more… lowkey environments.” Saw had no fucking clue who those people were and he also didn’t really care to find out. Smiling in amusement Saw got closer. This wasn’t the way to deal with this, Justin was obviously getting angry, but he was also getting overwhelmed and blushy. Plus Saw was finding himself getting impatient with the brat. He wanted to get going with it already. He was tired of going slow here, he was… he wasn’t acting like himself. This kid was driving him fucking crazy with all this bullshit.

“I don’t think I did, I’m having plenty of fun already. Surely there's something you like to do that you could show me, you seemed set on explaining and helping out just a minute ago.” Justin looked completely scandalized by that, disgusted by the fact that…? What was he even disgusted by? Saw wasn’t quite sure what was going on in the brat’s mind in all honesty. Maybe he was just disgusted by the fact Saw was having fun with him, maybe he wanted everyone around him to be bored all the time or something. That’d make as much sense as anything else he could come up with. 

“I’m- Death Scythe’s aren’t tour guides. If you're not interested in real information then please ask someone else.” Saw rolled his eyes and moved right up until they were chest to chest, clearly making the caged up Scythe who had undoubtedly never talked to anyone outside of the academy for longer than 3 minutes freak out and try to make distance. The panic was impressively hidden, Justin pretty much turned all of it into repulsion. Saw might of been convinced if it weren’t for the fact that Justin was having a hard time keeping eye contact and stopping the red flushing his face.

“You might need this even more than me… I might not know my way around yet but I’m sure I could bring you somewhere fun.” There was no mistaking what exactly Saw was suggesting now. It’d be obvious even to the biggest idiot that this wouldn’t be a chummy welcome to the town, come ask questions later if you want but we’ll probably never talk again! That seemed to be finally clicking in Justin’s mind, or at least finally processing as something he had to deal with and couldn’t just reflect off to someone else. There was no ‘someone else’ here. It wasn’t the town Saw wanted to see, it was  _ Justin.  _ The kid seemed to be having a hard time figuring out how to respond, surprisingly unused to this kind of attention. 

“Sir I- This isn’t something I can do for you. I don’t know who told you I can but I have actual work, I can’t just mess around.” The Sir burnt a bit, it didn’t just force a professional mile between them, it was also was a pretty awkward type of rejection. Saw clicked his tongue in annoyance, ignoring how Justin’s red upset face turned the slightest bit curious at the odd response. He had underestimated how much of a pain in the ass this would be, that woman hadn’t been joking around making that bet. Saw wasn’t fucking done here though, he wasn’t going to be brushed off so fast just because this brat didn’t understand that not everything in life had to do with some bloated ‘god’ that Saw- that Saw… 

Saw felt his anger putter out… Why was he so set on this?

The way he drew back slightly made Justin perk up the slightest bit, in relief or perhaps interest. Saw didn’t care which one it was. It was obvious at this point that even if he got Justin to fall in love with him he wouldn’t get any kind of safety from the deal. Justin was a fucking Death Scythe, not only that, he was a fucking weird one who was so sensitive and picky about anything said around who he viewed as his literal god that he’d undoubtedly tell if Saw did anything wrong. Being with Justin would make everything more dangerous for him. Exponentially more. 

Saw wasn’t enough of an idiot to kill himself for a bet, in all his lives he always backed out the second things got dangerous. He had shit to live for. A soul to protect. He knew that. He knew that and he had never been this much of a dumbass before. He had never risked his life for something as stupid and pointless as this before. He had to back out now. There wasn’t any point to this. There wasn’t even any guarantee he could get Justin to go out with him before the brat inevitably went whining and crying to his precious Death to report this like the cockwarmer he was. Justin could already be planning on doing that for all he knew. This was a mistake.

So why wasn’t he running away? Why wasn’t he moving to safe ground? He needed to go the hell back to Loew to be absolutely sure he wouldn’t have his mission ruined by a stuck-up blonde zealot who hadn’t even been alive long enough to know just what that stupid little cross on his neck represented. Fuck Medusa. Fuck this town. This kid really wasn’t worth it. He was too dumb even for Saw. He could have fun in his short little life and leave Saw the fuck alone to prepare his God’s downfall. 

Moving to turn on his heel and storm away Saw froze. He… he felt sick. Something weird and coiled started to writhe under his skin and in between his organs in a way that made him feel as if he was going to be torn apart. It was so sudden and painful that he made an awkward noise that elicited a response from the brat. A response he didn’t hear because it  _ hurt _ . It hurt so unbelievably bad that Saw couldn’t stop himself from grabbing onto his stomach and slapping a hand over his mouth, half convinced he was about to vomit blood. 

Justin wasn’t red anymore, he was looking at Saw with concerned, worried eyes. Justin was holding onto him, touching his face to see if he was hot. Why was he suddenly so sick? Why did he feel so out of it? Justin pulled at him, trying to get Saw to follow him somewhere in the academy. He followed against his will. His feet moving without his input. It was obvious his body was taking control here, following anyone who gave any indication that they were going to give him some kind of relief. He’d take almost anything to make this stop.

He didn’t understand what was happening, he didn’t understand why he had suddenly felt so sick from just trying to leave. Had Justin done something to him? How? They had just been talking. Justin hadn’t even touched him until now. Why had he felt gutted the second he had moved to get out of this stupid fucking town? Coughing slightly Saw noticed how his stomach squeezed at the concept of leaving. What the fuck was this? 

Tripping over his feet Saw groaned in pain, feeling the weird tendrils within him thrash and curl around his heart with a bruising grip. Even his brain felt the slightest bit off, the little wrinkles being invaded by the weird pulsing creatures. It was making him dizzy, he was really holding onto Justin with an embarrassing desperation at this point. He had no idea where they were going, or why he was being forced to move up stairs, but he didn’t really have the capability of thinking about it right now. 

Or at least he didn’t until he heard a sliding door slam open and Justin’s small hand tug him through into a room that smelled like disinfectant. He snapped to attention real fucking quick after that looking around rapidly to make sure she wasn’t here. It looked clear, a small blessing. He tried a few times to tug his hand out of Justin’s and make his escape. When the brat’s grip finally broke, complete with a tiny noise of upset that made Saw’s temper flare back up, he heard the door open again.

“Oh Justin what brings you-” Saw turned sheet white hearing Medusa’s faux caring and friendly voice. Suddenly the crippling pain wasn’t so bad anymore, maybe he was too busy coming to terms with the shit that was about to happen to feel pain or something. He turned around in a way that felt far slower than it actually was and Medusa’s voice trailed off as she realized the situation herself. 

“Saw? What are you doing here?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Medusa is actually going to be a bit of a character in this, I've written her once before in one of my goretobers but this is the first time I'll be giving her real planning and design ;v;) wish me luck!! Also, this quarter for me is going to be insanelyyy busy so I might be really slow with updates but I will try my best o-o)9 got to break this writers block after all!!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	4. Betrayal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anatomy has been kicking my ass and I've been so busy its not even funny, I barely have had time to write lately so when I do have the time I've been trying really hard to crank stuff out and not just fuck around. (I literally spent 3 hours today on homework for 1 day worth of classes) Hopefully this is still a fun read for people because I'm still really enjoying this fic

Saw could  _ feel  _ how much he was sweating here. The eye contact between him and Medusa was horrible, they both looked entirely shell-shocked and concerned to have ended up in the same room. Medusa’s blank stare disappeared impressively fast though, she glared at him horribly before closing her eyes and pulling her lips in a horribly fake smile.

“What seems to be the problem here? Are you sick?” Saw’s mouth felt stuffed with cotton, he wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t have any idea what was wrong with him and even if he did Medusa would be the absolute last person he’d go to. He felt the tiniest little bit of pity for the students here that Medusa had decided posing as a nurse was the best course of action here. Who knew what ‘help’ she was giving. 

“I’m not, but something seems to have happened to him, he almost threw up and crumpled over. Is there anything you can do?” Jumping back to attention Saw turned on his heel to see a very straight faced Justin, speaking clearly with no type of emotion thrown in. It made this whole situation feel worse. Was he talking like this because he was suspicious of them? Did he know what was happening? Were they going to get ratted out by a little fucking brat? Saw puffed up a bit in anger, trying to not strangle the scythe looking right past him and straight into Medusa’s eyes. 

“He did? Saw did you eat something? Come lay down.” Gritting his teeth together Saw awkwardly followed the command despite the fact he’d rather do anything else on Earth right now. If Justin stayed here the whole time he was going to have just let Medusa do whatever as to not get caught… he needed the brat out of here before Medusa decided now would be the perfect time to test some new experiment on him. As he sat stiffly on the edge of the shitty exam beds he noticed Justin look longingly over to the doors. He didn’t want to be here either. Saw wanted to scream at him to just leave, it was probably something dumb like manners keeping here anyway. 

“Justin you can leave if you’d like, I can handle it from here.” Medusa was already pulling some bullshit out from her desk, getting ready to do something that Saw was not ready to deal with. He wondered if it was a relief Medusa was asking the scythe to leave or if it was more of a cause for concern. He really fucking wished Medusa was easier to work worth so he’d know what the hell was going to happen here. 

“Ah. Ok, I’ll take my leave then. Blessings be upon you two.” With that Justin bowed very slightly and left with a sharp turn on his heel. Saw was shocked at how his stomach dropped and his entire body tensed up once the scythe’s black coat finally disappeared behind the door. He must be more worried about what Medusa was going to do than he thought. Looking back over to the witch his face stretched into something guilty and annoyed with the horrible glare he found waiting for him.

“So what was that? What brought the two of you together? Justin’s not someone easy to talk to.” The silent accusation under those words shot into Saw like a bullet. He was fucking guilty here and he knew it. His bad decision making aside though, the real question here was what the fuck had just happened. That pain wasn’t normal, Saw had felt a good amount of everything in his 800 years and that was unlike anything he had ever experienced.

“Yeah he’s not, he’s a real tool actually, but my question is why I felt like my stomach was going to get ripped open fucking alien style.” Medusa didn’t look amused with his sharp mouth and refusal to just shut up and listen, but she never did. She stopped pulling out her stethoscope and turned to lean back on her desk with a raised eyebrow. The look on her face confirmed Saw’s worst fear, she knew what this was, so she probably did it.

“You tried to go back and give up on our mission, didn’t you?” It was a simple question, a simple statement, but it took awhile to completely process in Saw’s mind. He was too shocked by it, too unwilling to accept what Medusa was insinuating as truth. Once he did though his entire body lit up and he stood up, his engine roaring from inside him as he bared his teeth.

“What did you do to me, huh? What exactly is going on here Medusa?” He cut right to the chase with it, he wasn’t going to play around and say that of course he hadn’t tried to or that he had but ‘what did that have to do with anything?’ he knew what it had to do with shit and he was  _ pissed _ . Medusa was entirely unfazed. She only smiled and sighed with a heavy disappointment that only worked to rile Saw up even more. 

“My  _ partners  _ have a high rate of betraying me so my snakes are really necessary if I want to get anything done, they won’t bother you if you do what you promised.” Medusa didn’t say point blank exactly what she had done, but she didn’t need to. Saw got the point. She was going to fucking kill him if he strayed off plan. As if he was obligated to follow her instructions. Didn’t have the charming nature or ability to convince people her bad ideas were worth the time so she was off doing shit like this. Saw was in fucking disbelief.   


“Are you fucking serious? I didn’t promise you shit, I said I’d help because it’d awaken Arachne, my decisions are made in your fucking  _ sister’s  _ best interest. Me being here isn’t in her best interest, so I’m going to fucking leave.” The pitious look Medusa gave him said he most certainly wasn’t going to leave, at least not in one piece. Saw couldn’t get over how fucking dumb this all was, what was she thinking? Saw knew Arachne well enough to know that she would be more than a little pissed off that someone else was ordering her servants around while she was gone. Medusa seemed to know that too and smiled.

“Yes well. I knew this was never in her best interest, but you see I never really got along with my dear older sister.” Saw felt all his anger flood out with that, replaced with a shock and self hatred. Was she fucking serious? Had he been tricked by Arachne’s bratty little sister and now had wasted 800 years on fucking nothing? What was this bullshit? At this rate he should just walk out right now and fucking take his death. If he wasn’t here to revive Arachne than was he just going to lose his life here for nothing?

“You were close to her weren’t you? I know you at least  _ wanted  _ to be. Did she never tell you about how she really felt about me? Were you anything more than a fun little toy for her?” Saw’s skin prickled. She was really having some fun here, really took pride in being as slimy as she was. Placing his arms on his hips he stood stockley above her, he knew she wouldn’t be afraid of how much bigger he was, but he was still going to remind her of it. 

“So, what exactly are you hoping for me to get done for you. You should know that if it doesn’t involve reawakening Arachne i’m not going to listen. I’ll let myself get ripped apart first.” Medusa chuckled, low and amused. Saw was old enough to know the darker part of extortion and trades, he knew how this shit worked and more importantly he knew how to get out of it. Now that the shock had passed his despair over all this bullshit was gone. This wasn’t the first time he had ended up in a less than desirable situation.

“Ah, so you're as stubborn as she is. Well whatever, we are still waking her up along with Asura, so just stick to the plan and things will be perfectly fine.” Saw made a gruff noise of appeasement, agreeing to go along with it but also making it perfectly clear he wasn’t too thrilled about it. The thrashing of the snakes had long stopped at this point but as moved to push Medusa out of the way and leave he felt one curl tight around his heart and freeze him in place.

“However  _ Giriko _ , you still haven’t answered what exactly were you doing with that scythe.” Pain be fucking damned, Saw turned on his heel with a fire in his eyes, ready to rip the witch apart into tiny little sections and then burn them like they had done in those dumb misguided witch hunts just to add insult to injury. Medusa didn’t look amused with his anger and only kept a stern face that demanded he respond. Saw gave her just that, but not in the way she wanted.

“Don’t fucking call me that!” It had been a long,  _ long  _ time since Saw had let himself scream that loudly, especially in a place filled with so many of Lord Death’s ‘children’. It was worth the risk though, that wasn’t a name he was ok with her throwing around. Hell, he wasn’t ok with her even just using it. That wasn’t his name, it would never be his name again unless Arachne came back. Giriko only existed alongside her.

"Being committed to a disguise is one thing Giriko, but forgetting who you are and what you are doing is another. Did you get lost these 800 years? How have you become so deluded?” Saw felt red, like he was boiling alive with his rage. His body was shaking and his breaths were coming out in long strained huffs as he tried to keep himself under control. It took him a few seconds before he finally managed to crack open his chapped lips and respond to the absolute horseshit she was spouting.

“You say that like you knew me before all this shit or you know why I’m fucking here. You’re the one that needs to get it together Medusa.” The words brought them to a stand still, Medusa looked over him with critical eyes before deciding he was right and there was nothing she could say in response to that. It should’ve given Saw a sense of victory, but he couldn’t feel anything but a bubbling disgust, thick and acidic, dance on the back of his tongue. He was fucking done here, he needed a drink, something to drown the stress and anger biting and tearing at his soul. 

“Just follow your commands. That scythe will only-” Medusa sounded fed up herself, ready for this to end but then coming to a realization about Justin. Saw honestly didn’t want to hear it. He was more than done with that brat, if he had just not decided to mess around with the blonde this bullshit would’ve never happened. Medusa’s odd pause turned into a horrific smile and she turned to him with a quirked up eyebrow. Suddenly pleased with his unpredicted decision. 

“Actually… I think there's something useful he might have.” Rubbing a hand down his face Saw looked at her to continue, showing how done with this he was so she’d hurry it up. She obviously paid it no mind, not the slightest bit perturbed with how he felt about all of this. 

“You know who Justin is right?” If looks could kill Medusa would be 6 feet under by now, Saw was so fucking done with all this beating around the bush. Of course he had no fucking clue who that blonde brat was, he didn’t keep tabs on Lord Death’s favorite toys. Growling slightly he leaned threateningly over Medusa.

“Spit it out.” Her smile was so malicious that if Saw didn’t know the ins and outs of these games he’d be scared for his safety here. How she had managed to secure a spot in the school at all, much less as a nurse, was completely beyond him. You could tell just by looking at her she was evil incarnate. Truly deranged and without empathy. Her poor fucking kid was proof of that. Her smile widened to the point where it would look like it would rip her entire face and she finally said what was on her mind.

“He’s the academy’s executioner, he most certainly will have the keys we’re looking for… if you could get those for me…” Saw’s brain went blank for a second. Everything from the past fucking week, month, year, years, decade, century, centuries went away and he felt the cold drip of his own blood pouring down his back as he tried to breathe without ripping the wound in his side even deeper. The golden moonlight unable to light the room enough to even see the cold wet wooden table he had been tied to. 

“He’s what?” The words were coming out of Saw’s mouth before he even realized he was talking. He was still out of it, still feeling the cold prick of the winter air that made his entire body go numb so all he could feel was the burning hot wound drip with an irregular rhythm he could feel driving him mad. Drip… drip… his mind wouldn’t be able to relax, he’d hold his breath waiting for the next drip, it was coming right? But when? Any second… Drip.

“I was wondering how you were so ok with that. Guess he was hiding it from you, or perhaps just not interested enough to tell. You have a problem with people not telling you things, huh?” Saw wasn’t interested in whatever lame stab she was trying to take here, Justin had said practically nothing in the few moments they were together and never said anything that wasn’t some kind of response. There was no intention to not tell Saw what he did there… but it still felt like an icy betrayal. 

It had been over 800 years since then, Saw had long lost count of when exactly it had happened, along with how old he really was at this point. He hadn’t been inside the academy since then, but he had come back because of Medusa’s promise to bring Arachne back. He didn’t have any fucking plans on getting anywhere near their cells though. Somehow he had just found himself looking to hold the bastard that was in charge of them… the whole concept made Saw feel like a stranger in his own skin, but also made his next move unignorable. He knew what he had to do here. 

“Yeah I’ll get his keys for you, we’ll have a real fun time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow look at all these Giriko headcanons... I don't know where they came from (minus one) but they're here I guess. Also Medusa, the resident bitch who only makes enemies, even with her allies.


	5. Binding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been so busy lately its a miracle I'm still functioning as a human person, that being said, I had most of this written already and did the last little bits of it over the past few weeks so I could post it for you all ;v;) Its not perfect, but I think it's pretty cute. Bickering babies

Finding Justin was once again, fucking impossible, the brat was goddamn elusive. Saw knew it was a big academy, but come  _ on _ , it was almost like the little shit didn’t even exist. When he finally did manage to spot Justin again he was working, half under the academy’s stupid ineffective mechanisms. At first he was relieved, because  _ finally _ . That relief quickly turned to disgust and anger though. 

Justin was with Lord Death, walking up from out of the dungeons. It didn’t take a genius to know what had just happened. There had just been an execution. Saw’s blood boiled. This brat had just lobbed off someone’s head for the praise of egomaniacal bastard who had somehow convinced the fucking world he was ominscent. Justin didn’t even look off put, his face wasn’t exactly happy and it looked a little blank, but he didn’t seem anything more than just tired. How old was this guy? What the hell was wrong with him? 

Glaring daggers from his spot under the machines, he felt his skin burn and his shoulders bunch up. If he wasn’t upside down on his back he’d be having a hard time not just walking over there and decking Justin in the face. It was way too dangerous to approach the  _ executioner  _ while he was fucking talking to Death, but Saw was growing impatient. He wanted to talk to Justin already, he wanted to… what did he even want to do? 

He was too far away to hear their conversation over the rushing pipe systems and grinding metal, but he didn’t need to. He didn’t need to know whatever gross shit they were saying. A shaky infuriated breath wracked out of his lungs and the mechanic working besides him looked over at him in concern before looking over to see what he was glaring at. The weird noise of shock that was quickly followed by a heavy sigh. It shocked Saw out his angry haze and he turned his neck to address the mechanic interrupting his subdued rage.

“You shouldn’t get so caught up with the kid, no one can keep his attention, even the other scythes and elites have a hard time with him from what I’ve heard.” Saw spat to the side for a second before going back to what he was working on, keeping a close eye on Justin out of the corner of his eye. He was starting to act weird enough for other people to notice, this brat was completely ruining everything for him here. Just his fucking existence was driving Saw crazy. This fucking dumbass was standing here, doing everything Saw stood against, everything Saw was working to get revenge for. It was like the universe was tempting him to go mad before the kishin had even awoken. 

Justin kneeled weirdly and bowed his head, holding his cross dramatically and casting one of his arms out to the side. Death turned to leave the brat in the dust fucking immediately, not showing any kind of shock over the weird display of respect. Fucking made sense knowing the bastard. He probably liked the brat stroking his cock like that. Saw rolled out from where he was in a flash and jumped up, completely ignoring the other mechanic’s noise of shock and subsequent complaint. He wasn’t going to miss this chance, he was going to deal with this now. He wasn’t going to keep sitting around for the kid to appear like the fucking specter he was. 

“Hey Justin.” Saw was actually shocked to see Justin turn to face him with wide surprised eyes, he thought he was going to have to get in the brat’s face to get his attention past the headphones. Surprisingly they were out though, hanging awkwardly out of his cape and pulsing with far too loud music that made Saw wonder how Justin was able to think straight with them in. It was probably that wasn’t thinking at all honestly, he seemed pretty hollow in there following Death like that.

“Saw? What are you doing down here?” Justin’s voice was nervous for a second, his eyes darting to the side where Death had disappeared off to, but once he noticed Death was indeed long gone he looked  _ pissed _ . Saw wasn’t really sure what he had done to warrant such a hateful glare from the brat, but considering the hatred that was bubbling inside of him it was almost nice to see the feeling reciprocated. 

“I told you I work here as a mechanic, what are you doing here?” Saw couldn’t stop his voice from sounding angry and impatient, accusatory. He knew damn well what Justin was doing here, and he wanted the brat to have to face the shame of explaining it to someone. He wanted to make Justin admit he was spilling the blood of people blindly, under strict blank orders that never made any fucking sense.

“What do you mean what am I doing? I work here, what do you think I’m doing?” They weren’t exactly fighting, but there was a tension between them that warned that could change any moment. Saw had a good feeling there were some prying eyes from the other mechanics, but he really couldn’t care less right now. He wanted to knock Justin down to size.

“What kinda work would someone like you being doing in a dungeon?” Justin’s angry expression actually broke with that, turning into something heavy with confusion. Saw’s hands rested on his hips as he glowered over the brat who was now looking at his with an uncertain curiosity, a bit of annoyance hiding under it all but mostly just a childish wonder. It pissed Saw off something awful. 

“Someone like me? Who do you think I am?” Justin’s voice was offended, but undeniably excited to hear the answer. It was more than just odd, Saw didn’t understand anything about this idiot. There was something seriously wrong with him, more than he had he had been expected or had seen so far. Nevertheless-

“I think you’re a kid.” There was a long stretch of silence after that, Justin’s lips pursed and he looked Saw up and down in a way that made in obvious that he was actually  _ looking  _ at Saw for the first time. That had hit enough of a cord in the brat to have he really take in just who Saw was before they continued. The fact that Justin didn’t at all try to hide what he was doing only served to rile Saw up even more. 

“Well, it’d be best to not think about it like that.” Justin said it in such a dismissive manner that if Saw wasn’t so stubborn that would be the end of the conversation. Everything about Justin body language and the way he was acting said that he  _ was  _ going to remember Saw now, that he had moved from an annoyance that was starting to work on his last nerve, to what almost seemed like a type of pity. The scythe held himself in a way that said how self assured he was and how much better he thought he was than Saw. It was infuriating. 

“You are one though, why aren’t  _ you  _ thinking of it that way? ‘Cause you don’t want to think about what's happening here?” Justin’s entire body stiffened up in a way Saw wasn’t expecting, he hadn’t thought Justin had enough going on in his pea sized brain to have an awareness about this. The reaction was a real shock, what wasn’t shocking though was how Justin’s face settled in to a completely  _ disgusted  _ glare. Saw almost wanted to laugh. 

“ _ Because  _ I am proud to be held up to the same standards as everyone else serving Lord Death at my level. Thinking of myself as a child will only allow me to make excuses. I would never.” The atmosphere turned bitter. Justin said the words in a way that proved he was indeed proud of himself, but that only made things taste even worse on Saw’s tongue. He really was dealing with one of the reaper’s blinded executioners. The hold the god had on people was insane, people,  _ children _ , throwing out any kind of morals without a second thought just for his praise. Saw’s hand closed around Justin’s wrist like a vice.

“You… You’re fucking coming with me.” Pulling Justin forward with a sharp tug the brat made a noise of confusion and tried to free himself a few times before stumbling along with Saw. There were plenty of complaints coming from the kid, demands to be let go, questions of what was happening, Saw ignored them all. He couldn’t care less about getting revenge against Justin in particular right now, he wanted revenge against  _ Death. _

“Stop it! Let me go!” Justin was starting to dig his heels in, really trying to stop this from happening without resorting to actual violence. Despite being a Death Scythe though, it seemed the kid was lacking in brute strength and couldn’t stop himself from being easily dragged along. Saw still didn’t have a real plan here, but he had an idea of what he wanted to happen. Justin was a weapon, a Death Scythe, and if he had been given the specialized role of executioner at such a young age… Saw had a good feeling he knew what kind of weapon Justin was. 

Guillotines were rare, outdated. Saw hadn’t been hiding out from the news around the academy, he had been keeping a close eye on that shit, watching to make sure no one got too close. The last time he had heard of a guillotine being enrolled, much less used, by the academy was at least a century ago if not longer. There was no doubt that Death, with his need to keep up his godly image was thrilled to have a guillotine again, to have something that provoked such a feeling of hopelessness to his enemies. Saw knew how much he loved to make his prisoners feel that way. 

Right now he had a chance to take that away from Death. To strip him from some of his power. Like hell he wasn’t going to take that. He could figure out what he wanted to do with Justin later. As long as he wasn’t here giving Lord Death the satisfaction of a degrading and painful execution… 

“What are you doing!” Suddenly Justin found the strength to yank his arm away and hold it against himself protectively, a horrible glare on his face. The standoff they fell into was suffocating, Justin clearly wasn’t going to storm off without some kind of answer, and Saw wasn’t going to just leave after all of this either… but he wasn’t sure what to do. He was getting sloppy, this brat was driving him insane. He needed to figure out what he was actually doing here, he couldn’t just move blindly fueled by his hatred for Death. 

“I’m taking you out, I need a break and  _ you  _ need to see somewhere that isn’t here.” The amount of hatred that was coming out of both of them right now was unignorable, it promised that this wasn’t going to be any fun. Neither of them made any move to run away. Justin straightened up and arched one of his eyebrows, he looked more disgusted with Saw than anyone else in his entire 800+ year life had. The brats face could really bend into something impressive there. The utter expressiveness of it all, and the fact that it was coming from one of Lord Death’s cocksuckers… it was almost pleasing to see. Almost cute.

“And why is that? I have actual work to be doing.” Saw looked down at the other with the slightest hint of a smile, some of that bravado, disinterest, practice, was falling away. Justin was starting to give up being polite, it was far more satisfying than it should’ve been. Letting his smile grow even wider he leaned over, making the scythe crane his neck back to avoid a collision. They were close enough to feel each other’s breath, Justin looked as if he could kill and bury Saw’s body right here. 

“Cause you look like you're dying. You're so pale I wonder if you’ve ever been out of these fucking crypts.” It was nothing more than a whisper, but despite the words seeming perhaps the tiniest bit concerned Saw’s voice only came across as mocking. Justin reacted just as Saw was coming to expect, his nose wrinkled up and a grimace pulled at his pretty pink lips, twisting his angelic face into something ugly. A low poorly subdued laugh leaked out from between Saw’s smiling teeth.

“I look like I’m dying, do I? Then why did you come find me yesterday? Don’t try to convince me a dying person looks like fun.” The words hit Saw harder and faster than they should’ve. He was not under any circumstances expecting Justin to acknowledge what Saw had been getting at yesterday, hell, he wasn’t even sure if Justin had ever even figured it out he was such a wreck. The confidence in Justin’s words said he knew  _ exactly  _ what was going on though, and that he knew he was infuriatingly gorgeous. Any comments on his appearance weren’t going to land, apparently he had enough confidence to shut out anything. 

“Listen to you… finally decided to stop pretending you don’t know what's happening so you can be a prude? That means I’ve won you little brat.” Justin’s face turned the tiniest bit red, almost unnoticeable, would’ve been unnoticeable if it weren’t for the fact that his translucent skin wouldn’t let him hide shit. It was clear Justin was fuming, upset he had indeed been tricked into giving up his faux innocence. Saw wasn’t sure when the last time he had felt this satisfied was. 

“Let’s stop the games then, why are you trying to get me outside  _ sir? _ If I thought you were more moronic than I already do I’d be worried you're trying to kidnap me.” The sir was said with a venom Saw wasn’t sure he had heard before, at the very least a kind he had never seen come from a pretty face like Justin’s. It was mesmerizing, and as intoxicating as taking Justin up on that offer and dropping all the games here  _ was _ , he knew he couldn’t do that.

“Why do you think I am? If I’m so dumb surely you can guess what I’m planning here.” Justin drew back the slightest bit, still standing firm but now undeniably unsure and uncomfortable. He didn’t know, and being reminded of the fact that he didn’t know what was happening was making him nervous. Saw realized far too late that saying he had a plan (although he most certainly didn’t have one yet, he wasn’t sure what he was doing anymore) was an extremely bad move. Now Justin  _ knew  _ he was right to be wary of him.

“I think it's because… you’re really desperate.” Saw entire mind froze solid as he stared down at the annoying blonde who was turning the tiniest bit red as let himself speak inhibited. On one hand, Justin wasn’t suspicious of him and the kidnapping joke was just that, a joke… on the other… 

“You think I’m that pathetic?” Saw’s voice was dangerous, his teeth were poking out threateningly, Justin only raised an eyebrow in a way that said  _ ‘of course’.  _ Saw knew he should just go with it, that letting Justin believe he was just some sad bastard would help him out in the long run… but fuck if his pride was going to let that happen. His mouth opened, sharp and bloodthirsty, he wasn’t even sure what he was going to say, what he wanted to do with this piece of shit that was-

“I think you want to be but won’t let yourself, because you’re starting to hurt from being alone.” The way Justin said it was far too assured, like he was speaking fact instead of some wild guess. Saw’s lip curled upward in disgust. Something volatile was boiling under his skin, Justin’s blue eyes felt prying, like they were digging for more. All his muscles seemed to roll up in an awkward and uncomfortable wave, begging him to tear them all out so he’d stop feeling as if he was in some sort of fake skin suit. He took a deep breath.

“You’re right. Why don’t you humor me for a bit? Let me feel a bit less alone.” Justin blinked, shocked to hear such an ‘honest’ confirmation. He looked around him in confusion, as if someone was going to jump out and tell him he was being pranked, but then seemed to relax and nod in an acceptance of Saw’s offer. 

The spider smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It'll be a bit before the next update, but I promise I'm not dropping this, I just need to make sure to pass my classes and not die lol. Life is off to a whirlwind for me this year but o-o)9 I'm committed to not drop the ball on my fanfiction, its my passion lol (also I started making soul eater earrings that are available @heavenoma just btw)


	6. Arachnida

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The hardest part of this fic I swear is making sure I don't call Saw Giriko, I keep doing it and have to go back and fix it in editing... ctrl + f search 'giriko' has been saving my life for real...

Justin’s acceptance of his offer really didn’t make much sense, Saw honestly chalked it up to the brat being too awkward or too ‘charitable’ to refuse someone begging for company. The weird move of relenting and just going along with Justin’s assumptions worked out better than he had expected it to. Still, Justin just agreeing to go out with him didn’t make all of this a success, and the silence that stretched over them was so painfully uncomfortable that Saw was half tempted to give up now. 

“Well, now that you’ve had your fun making me act like a sad piece of shit, why don’t you let me show you some fun?” The scythe shrunk under that the slightest bit, obviously uncomfortable and not wanting to figure out what that meant, but also so stubborn that he refused to back down now that he was committed to it. Saw almost felt bad for the brat, it was clear he had a problem with refusing things.

Still, he wasn’t going to throw out a chance like this. Throwing his thumb over his shoulder he gestured to the doors, Justin’s mouth bent into a worried frown but nevertheless started towards the door, following after Saw perfectly as they made their way out of the darkened basements of the academy. There was one loud shout from one of the mechanics in compliant, the same bastard that had told him to not worry about Justin earlier, before a flurry of the other mechanics hushed him, all peering around the corner with wide eyes, invested in the bet it seemed like Saw was about to win. 

Thankfully Justin rather didn’t notice or didn’t care about the spectacle they had apparently become, and walked right out without acknowledging any of the activity going on by the boilers. It was so unbelievably lucky that Saw couldn’t even muster up a sly smile to give the woman who was currently fuming over her lost bet before he left. 

Justin looked entirely unamused waiting for him outside, it had been literally seconds so at first Saw wasn’t really sure what he done to get a glare like that… but then he realized Justin was glowing, so pale he was reflecting the hot Nevada sun, and he wasn’t happy about it. Saw wasn’t able to stop himself from breaking out into laughter about it, making the scythe’s face grow even more annoyed.

“Wow that’s impressive baby scythe, do you live down there or something? How are you this pale?” Surprisingly Justin turned slightly red with that, embarrassed or maybe already getting a sunburn, Saw started to laugh even harder. What a fucking priss over there, he probably never had to go outside and actually do real work being a Death Scythe. It wasn’t like Death needed his weapons very often after all, they probably got to do a lot of sitting around. Well… except for today, Saw’s good mood stopped dead as he remembered what was certainly the aftermath of an execution come up from the crypts. 

“Well, you said you wanted to do something. If you're going to keep me waiting-” Saw could feel an amused exhaustion come over him with Justin’s impatient words. What a piece of shit, If anyone else had ever gotten this far with him (which Saw highly doubted) there was a clear reason that they weren’t still around. The amount of entitlement coming off this kid was insane.

“You sure aren’t easy to make friends with are you, can’t you just chill out for a second, we’ll get there brat.” Justin looked less than pleased with that response, and looked even less pleased when Saw got closer, wrapping one arm around the kid’s waist to herd him forward to where they were going. It was amazing how huffy this kid was when he wasn’t stuck on being professional, it was almost like Saw had hit a switch in him that suddenly turned him into the most difficult child on earth. 

“It’s because I’m not trying to make friends, I’m doing this as a favor, don’t waste my time.” Wow. Saw wasn’t even sure where to start with that. This brat certainly was something special, but not in a good way… The only good thing that could really be said about him was that he wasn’t in anyway boring, this was probably the most interesting person Saw could’ve picked in this dumb academy. No telling if that was a blessing or a curse yet though. 

“You're a real bitchy clergyman aren’t you? What self respecting man of god talks so crass?” Saw’s taunting made Justin’s nose turn up and he slapped the mechanic's hand away with a disgusted noise. That had really ruffled his feathers apparently… Saw didn’t feel the slightest amount of guilt, he only slung his arm around Justin’s shoulders with a thin dangerous grin and forced the brat to keep moving forward. 

“The kind who knows there's more worthy things he could be doing with his time.” Rolling his eyes over dramatically Saw pushed the kid forward, right into the doors of the bar he had found pretty much as soon as he arrived in Death City. It was so incredibly close to the academy it had to be mostly frequented by staff or something. He wondered how much of a hell working with the students here had to be that they had a bar so close. Justin only managed to catch himself on the bar of the door, swinging the whole thing open rather dramatically with his body weight and making him turn bright red.

Ah. So public attention is what made him act so different. Once eye’s other than Saw’s were on him he was back to ‘normal’ and not as bratty. Saw wasn’t quite sure why that came as a bitter disappointment to him. Whatever the reason wasn’t important though, and he didn’t get very long to think about it either before the bartenders mouth opened in shock with a louder than needed-

“Law?” Justin’s face turned such a dark ashamed red that he honestly looked like an overripe cherry, like his entire face was covered in a blood blister or something. The bartender just looked shocked, even more so when he saw Saw right behind the scythe, pushing the pretty blonde the rest of the way in so they weren’t just standing in the door awkwardly. The bartender didn’t seem to be getting any less shocked, and actually started to look around in panic, as if someone was hiding getting ready to prank him or some shit.

“Justin, you? You’re… What are you doing here? You know we can’t serve minors and…?” The poor bastard sounded so confused, but beyond that… Saw looked down at Justin in shock, wait… Just how young was this kid? He had to be over 18, right? Looking back at the bartender in shock of what he might accidentally be doing right now he saw a sign advertising that they didn’t serve anyone under 21… Right, they were in America right now weren’t they… Saw had never really run into that rule in his ancient, never being under 23 since they started making bars, life. 

“I- I know, I’m not drinking… Just trying to finish meeting with this… uh… mechanic.” It stung a bit to be referred to as nothing but his professional title but Saw brushed it off without much fuss. He was having far too much fun watching the bartender look around as if Death himself was watching the decision he was going to make here, as if Death gave a shit what his scythes did. It seemed that he finally decided that there was no way he could exert any kind of a power over a Death Scythe he mumbled something that was some sort of ‘ok fine come in it won’t be my fault though’. Saw only laughed and pushed the thoroughly upset scythe further in towards one of the tables. 

“Don’t look so down, it's just a building, you're acting like you just ran someone over.” Saw couldn’t stop himself from laughing in between every word, Justin didn’t look like he was getting on board with the same humor though. He only sat down rigidly and stared holes into the table as Saw sat down beside him. It seemed like he was going to need a lot to ease him into this atmosphere of ‘sin’ or ‘unlawfulness’ or whatever and get him to actually talk… how exhausting.

The next action of ordering drinks was probably the most awkward experience Saw had ever had in his life. He didn’t order drinks for people, people could take responsibility for their own shit, he didn’t get involved in that. There was no way Justin was going to say fucking anything to the bartender with the self imposed shame he was bathing in over there though… The judgmental,  _ hateful  _ look he got from the bartender was only slightly lessened when he ended up asking uncomfortably for a water for the little shit. 

This was very quickly tumbling into a unsalvagable failure, and when Justin started to draw shit with the condensation of his drink Saw wanted to slam his face into the counter and say fuck it. Shit had actually been going well for a second there, what a fucking shame that things had gotten so screwed up so fucking fast. Peeling his hands down his face Saw sighed horribly, before glancing over at the very young (too young) looking Justin mess with the small puddle of water that had appeared on the bar.

Taking a breath he moved to break the silence before his mouth went as dry as a desert in shock. Out of everything he could’ve guessed happening today, one of the last things on that list was an incredibly large house spider slowly lowering itself down on it's web, to move towards Justin… 

It wasn’t often that Saw ran into spiders that moved with clear purpose and desire around him, but whenever he did he  _ knew _ . He knew she was here, watching him and giving him clear orders because something was happening that she wanted to change for their benefit. Fuck. All of this had been way more than he signed up for. 

Immediately Saw started to guess what it could possibly be, did she want Justin dead? Was she trying to show him something? Trying to get a reaction out of Justin that’d reveal something? Saw watched the spider with such an intense focus that he completely forgot what he was supposed to be doing here. Justin turned around, noticing Saw’s obvious staring and wanted to know what was behind him. The response was…

“Oh ew.” Justin crushed the spider in his hands with a sharp slap, the sound echoing through the empty bar and through Saw’s head a thousand more times. He was in a complete shock, unable to even move as the scene played behind his eyes over and over again. There was nothing he could do in response to that, he couldn’t risk blowing up, but he had also never been forced to sit in quiet witness to such a horrific act against Arachne’s-

“Are you ok?” Justin looked confused, wiping the gooey remains of Arachne’s messenger off on the napkin of his drink. He could obviously sense that had rattled Saw, and of course he didn’t get it. There was no way he could get it. He was a little brat, he had no idea about any of this, no idea what he had done, no clue who Saw was or even who Arachne was. Or at least he wasn’t supposed to. Justin gained a devious smile and rested his face in his now clean hand and raised an eyebrow. His confidence apparently back now that Saw had the lower hand. 

“Do you think Arachnida will come kill me now? I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get so scared of  _ watching  _ someone kill a spider.” If Saw thought they had reached the limit for how unexpected this situation could have gotten then he was dead wrong. He hadn’t heard that title used since Arachne’s ‘death’. What the hell was a baby like this doing knowing something like that? Justin’s smile only grew wider with his reaction and he laughed quietly before leaning back. Saw knew he needed to respond, to turn this around entirely before too much got out. He couldn’t find the words to stop this and Justin continued.

“You never struck me as a superstitious man, much less cautious. How surprising.” Saw shook his head, finally snapping out of his stupor and getting back into the conversation. The risk had gone up substantially here… but so had his interest in this kid. He wasn’t sure the last time he had been this curious of a person. He was honestly expecting Justin to be boring cookie cutter shit… The Scythe had really turned everything Saw had assumed about him so far on it's head hadn’t he?

“Superstitious huh? I’m surprised a religious fanatic like you doesn’t think she existed.” There was a twinkle in Justin’s eye with that, a mutual interest. This was  _ not  _ the subject Saw was expecting to finally form a relation between them, but out of everything… Saw wasn’t sure if there was anything else that could’ve been nearly as exciting. Justin’s smile was thin, genuine but trying to hide itself behind some kind of aura of superiority. 

“So you do believe in her, I suppose I misjudged you as ignorant…. It’s not that I don’t think she existed, it's that she’s dead now. There’s nothing left to be afraid of, Lord Death saved us long ago.” Saw felt something evil chuckle deep within him hearing that. They all thought Lord Death had killed her huh? Is that what he had said? That would make her reappearance all the sweeter. He couldn’t wait to show the world what a fraud Lord Death truly was. 

“Oh she did? Then what's that feeling when you're tired and you think a spider is crawling against your hair…?” Saw moved over to skitter his finger’s over the blonde’s hair in a insect-like pattern, making the scythe bunch up and giggle at the ticklish feeling.

“She hides in your brain, all weapons hold her deep inside, she is their mother, there's no escape from her influence. Once you start to grow tired you’ll feel her crawling around and know you were never truly alone in there” Justin’s eyes were as wide as saucers, amazed with everything he had just heard. For a second Saw wondered if he had just extradited himself, pulled the smoking gun out to show some blonde brat, but then he realized that Justin was really just transfixed with what he had said. That swept up in the story. Saw’s lip twitched up awkwardly as he realized that stories and legends were definitely going to be how he was going to get anywhere here. 

There couldn’t have been anything that was more of a double edge sword. On one hand he had centuries of stories to tell, on the other… who knew how naive this brat was. How much he could be told without putting things together. Or if he could be all mixed up with some careful planning and specially worded stories pushing him the right way… Saw bit his lip and leaned back. He was getting ahead of himself here, he was getting too interested himself. 

“That’s exactly why it's important to stay vigilant with your loyalty to Lord Death, because their influence will never leave, trust the word of god over their evil whispers, always and forever.” Saw’s throat felt raw and ice cold as Justin’s lips moved tenderly around each word, saying the whole command so perfectly it was undeniable he had heard it over and over before. The silence that stretched over them was awful but Justin didn’t seem to be all at bothered by the rather horrified look he was getting, rather used to it or proud enough of his blind loyalty that it didn’t phase him. He was sure of himself, sure of every word he said and everything he was doing. Little moron. 

“Sounds relaxing, not having to think about anything.” The humorous tone and mocking smile made it clear that Saw wasn’t being sincere with his words, but Justin didn’t seem offended in the least. The scythe only looked to the side, staring at the ice cold water and crumpled napkin for a second, looking scarily transfixed by it, his mouth opening with the beginnings of a word he wasn’t making any move to actually  _ say _ . Finally his jaw snapped closed and a horrible eye contact formed between them with a scary smile.

“You misunderstand, you have to think about everything, you have to understand what inside you is  _ you  _ and what is madness. Do you understand yourself Saw? If you know who you are you’ll know what is the madness trying to mislead you and you won’t need to be scared.” Saw’s mind went entirely blank as he looked down at the blonde scythe with flamingly passionate eyes. It was clear every single word he said he truly believed and truly wanted Saw to take to heart himself. It was almost like it was advice, something that sounded as if it was spoken from a place of not quite yet recovered pain. 

“Do you know yourself pipsqueak?” The words came out so gruff and overly aggressive Saw was surprised. He hadn’t thought that pissed him off, but apparently it had, at least a little bit for him to be talking like this… Justin was perturbed, he didn’t even seem to process that there was any anger in the air, he was too focused on saying whatever shit he was going on about here. 

“I do.” It was like a monster started thrashing within his heart, something that wasn’t really hatred but felt awfully similar… A pain he knew he had felt before, but never really had figured out the word for it even in all his years. Turning away from the brat just enough to pound the rest of his drink he huffed out all the anger he could before glancing back at Justin, still sitting there completely sure of himself and unmoving. 

“Well I guess I’ll just have to believe you there.” Saw didn’t really believe that at all, there was no way Justin, a barely 18 year old brat, could figure out the separation between himself and madness, as if there was some kind of easy line in the sand in the first place. A soft silence followed Saw’s response for awhile, neither of them knowing how to really follow something like that. Saw could feel his foot jittering in stress or impatience or both as he ordered another drink, his skin itching for the distraction burning hot liquor would give him here. 

The bartender quickly fulfilled his request, giving him an easy out from this… but then Justin put his hand over the glass and swung it across the counter so it was behind him, far out of Saw’s reach. The glare that formed on Saw’s face was more toxic than any other glare he had made in decades at least.

“I can make you believe me.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have made it, to weird bratty Justin. Saw isn't the only weird one anymore, we've got them both acting like their erratic selves again, hooray


	7. Self Image

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I call Saw Giriko a few times in this but let it be known it was actually on purpose and I wasn't just making a mistake, I check these things.

For a second they were just silent, Saw trying to digest the scythe’s words past his annoyance at being denied a drink. Justin wasn’t saying anything, wasn’t showing how he was going to do this amazing thing he was offering. Most likely because he couldn’t. Saw had been alive long enough to know that a person had no way to explain who they were, it was beyond their understanding, beyond everyone’s. It would be like a fish explaining how to swim, a human explaining how to walk, there were words to use, but they didn’t mean anything. 

No matter how hard someone tried to explain how walking worked a person listening would never be able to walk without being shown proof it worked, without being helped to move in the unfamiliar movements. A person was the same way, they could say whatever they wanted but it meant nothing, there would always be something missing, something lost that just couldn’t be transcribed. Scowling Saw grabbed back his drink, surprising the scythe who jumped back slightly from the darting hand moving past him and broke their eye contact. 

Taking a sip of the bitter amber Saw raised an eyebrow at how Justin kept staring at the condensation ring where his drink had been aimlessly, only looking back when Saw finally coughed to get his attention. Something looked wrong with the scythe, something clearly was wrong with him… He had gotten hints of it before now but now it was becoming too apparent. Saw felt a bead of sweat drip down his back as Justin stared into his eyes, looking past him into something that didn’t exist.

“Saw, do you know who I am?” He had no idea how to respond to that, hell, he had no idea if he knew the answer to Justin’s question or not. He knew Justin was the academy executioner… but that was about it. Was that the point of the question? Was he being reminded he was a stranger here or what? He couldn’t tell. He had no idea in what way Justin was talking, or really to who. It was almost like he was seeing through everything right now, he had to respond, to end this right in it's tracks.

“Nah I don’t. Am I supposed to?” Justin’s still as stone face dropped into a smug smile with that and his posture relaxed again as he sighed, a defused bomb. Saw was still horribly on edge though, what the hell was that? That was terrifying, that felt like staring his death in the face… That made him want to give this all up right now and run away with his tail between his legs. What was he supposed to do if that happened again? Was he playing a life or death version of red light green light? Creeping up on the brat when he was unaware but needing to freeze up in the moments where he suddenly began to show that he knew far too much?

“Do you know yourself Saw?” Freezing solid Saw realized that the question hadn’t been literal there, Justin wasn’t sniffing him out, at least not yet… but still this new question posed a new problem. Mainly that he didn’t want to answer. Taking another long sip of his drink he looked over to the darkening windows and scowled, other people would be showing up soon, he’d have to get out of here before other academy members took notice of him… 

“I don’t know kid, I don’t think anyone can.” Suddenly there was a clattering noise and Saw whipped around to look at what had happened only to be nose to nose to Justin, mere centimeters from him, holding onto his shoulders so they didn’t completely headbutt each other. It was such a horrifying moment that Saw was surprised he didn’t shit himself. Justin was far too close, it didn’t matter how high target, how information rich, how pretty he was, Saw wanted him  _ off _ . He didn’t get a chance to push the kid off before he got something he never wanted to hear.

“I know who you are.” 

Giriko’s heart stopped, everything slowed down and he felt the entirety of Death City press down around him in it's inescapableness. Justin wasn’t blinking, wasn’t moving away, wasn’t saying anything, Giriko felt his chains roll silently through his body, his only chance of escape was to kill the brat right here, leaving his corpse for anyone to find and high tailing it out of here. That meant beating a Death Scythe though, an Executioner, without anyone in this town noticing and coming to help… If he just gave up here though… he could feel the burning pain that wouldn’t just end with scars and a broken spirit this time, it’d end with the slice of guillotines blade. 

“That scares you doesn’t it? Maybe next time you shouldn’t be so obvious and think I can be tricked into being a thing to be won for a bet.” Saw almost fell out of his chair in relief, he almost fucking _orgasmed_ with how amazing it felt to know he wasn’t about to die. Fuck.  _ Fuck _ . That had been… that had been way too close. That wasn’t even funny. If he had moved a second faster and decided to attack before Justin clarified he really would’ve sealed his fate. He had to remember he was dealing with a teenager here, everything was 8 times simpler than he was figuring it out to be in his head. He was overthinking this, being paranoid about a creepy kid who was still blissfully unaware of what was actually happening here.

“If you think that's what I’m doing then why’d you come out with me?” The scythe sat back down, this time with slightly red cheeks that made something malicious in Saw smile. Ok… now that things had calmed down a bit and everything had gotten clearer it seemed an awful lot like everything was working out perfectly for him… 

“You seemed more interesting than my 89th report on kishin sightings in eastern europe today.” Justin was bright red, embarrassed to admit he was skipping out on work to be here with Saw… It was amazing. Proof he was making a good deal of progress on this kid despite it being incredibly hard to tell more often than not. He might not be in Justin’s good graces yet, but he was already being marked as someone to go with if he wanted a break… that was fucking huge. 

“Aw are they working their little scythe to the bone? How cruel, shouldn’t the baby get it the easiest? Sounds like they’re giving you the grunt work.” Justin’s face turned petulant and upset, huffing at having his age poked at. Still, Saw didn’t miss the bit of pink on Justin’s face, the tiny twitch of his scowling lips quirking upward. It was painfully obvious that no one treated this brat like a kid, _ no one _ . It was clear from how he acted and how he seemed almost shamefully happy to finally hear someone wonder where the leniency he deserved was. 

“They just trust me.” It was an excuse, giving the people he worked with far more credit they deserved so he wouldn’t have to see the reality of it. Saw shook his head with a low laugh. God, this kid seemed  _ so  _ easy to push around, so eager to help that you could dump anything on him and he’d be thrilled with it even if it was just BS you were avoiding. It was sad, sad enough that Saw almost wanted to take the brat and put him up on a little shelf hidden away just so he could see the rest of the scythes suffer without their errand boy doing all the brain melting work. Saw was practically getting wet at the idea of how much he could do with this kid to ruin the DWMA’s whole goddamn day. 

“Yeah I’m sure that’s it, so… you came to me ‘cause you were bored? That sounds promising.” Justin looked over to him with confused eyes, lost as to what this was about. The kid had been smart enough to sniff out that he was being used, but it seemed like he was still completely missing the fact that Saw was interested in him beyond the bet. Rather some self confidence issues or just a complete ignorance that attraction was a thing that existed. The latter was seeming more likely in all honesty, this kid seemed to exist pretty much entirely in his work. 

“Do you really think I’m just here for a bet? I wouldn’t suffer through this if I wasn’t looking for more.” The scandalized look that immediately came over Justin’s face said he had taken that the wrong way entirely, which was funny considering a child of god shouldn’t have been thinking of that at all. Saw supposed only so much could be expected from a teenage boy though, it was amazing enough that he seemed disgusted by it… he must be amazingly repressed over there. 

“I don’t mean that, I mean I want to take you out more than this you little shit.” The silence that stretched over them was awful and Saw didn’t miss the glare he got from the bartender. God, he was going to get this entire town to hate him just by trying to kiss their little scythe. He really couldn’t get a read on this stupid fucking place and how they felt about Justin, the mechanics only said shit about him and apparently, according to them, he didn’t get along with anyone. He also hadn’t seen Justin hang out with a single person except that one Sid guy once. So did anyone care what he did or not? Who even was this bartender? Some lone ranger that just could tell Saw was bad news in some way?

“You want to what?” Justin’s voice was so tiny and shy that Saw could practically feel an arrow pierce through his heart. Fuck. How could this brat be cute like that? He had been nothing but insufferable until now, he wasn’t supposed to suddenly pull a card like that. Turning the tiniest bit red Saw scratched under his chin with a horrible scowl and looked away making eye contact with the bartender for a second before the guy scurried off taking his glaring with him. What a creep listening in like that… he had to be bored.

“You heard me, it shouldn’t be too shocking. Someone like you has had to have gotten this kinda attention before.” Justin turned a cute little pink with that, confirming he most certainly had. Saw wasn’t shocked by that. The brat was real pretty, there just wasn’t any avoiding it. Including his status and station in a town like this he was probably idolized in a way by some people, and he was young enough that the students would think they had a chance with the silent and ‘sweet’ scythe. 

Saw could guess a few reasons it had never worked out before though. One, he was getting the impression Justin was gay here, which really was great for Saw but probably was unfortunate to any young girls trying for his attention. But also the scythe just had a real rotten personality under everything and there was a big chance he wouldn’t want to have to cover that up more often than he already had to. Also the whole religion thing, there was a good chance that Justin might just not be allowed to date because of whatever his role was in his dumbass church. Which kind of pointed to the idea that this was entirely hopeless but there was still a thin chance Saw was holding onto that Justin would say-

“Ok… Azusa’s been telling me I need to take a break and if she’s saying that it probably means it’s bad…” Saw didn’t care about whatever excuse Justin was making for himself right now, he was just thrilled he had actually gotten confirmation here. He had managed to grab onto the apparently impossible to get along with scythe and now had the ability to ask Justin out whenever without it being a huge deal… The smile that stretched up his face was so predatory that he wouldn’t be all that surprised if the kid bolted right now.

He didn’t though, Justin just looked up at him, his head bowed slightly down in a soft shyness, a small smile gracing his lips. He looked so innocent, like someone who hadn’t just executed a man earlier today, Giriko was more than ready to finally get what he wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kind of a weird short chapter but hopefully its still a fun read ovo)/ Giriko is starting to fall in love but he's too much of a dumbass to realize it smh and poor Justin dealing with this...


	8. First Time

Things didn’t just fall together after that. It wasn’t like he had gotten the O.K. to do whatever he wanted and it was game and set. In fact, Justin went missing for a good 3 days after they split up that night. Saw was sure he had fucked up somehow, that Justin had magically figured out exactly what was going on and had reported it like the fucking tattletail he undoubtedly was. At this point he was all but pulling his hair, desperate to run but knowing he couldn’t without talking to the fucking snake hiding upstairs. 

When Justin finally showed back up he was talking to a fucking freak in the town square, a guy with a bear mask talking so loud he might as well have been screaming. The scythe was spacing out, it was obvious to anyone anywhere near them that he wasn’t listening to the other guy at all, but apparently the guy didn’t care… or maybe he was just as dumb as the mask made him look and didn’t realize Justin was ignoring him. Saw wanted to go over there, to break their one way conversation and figure out where the brat had been hiding all this time. 

Although… now that he was watching this display there was a real possibility that Justin had only accepted to get him to leave him alone. Saw was certain he wasn’t as moronic and bad at reading body cues as this guy talking to the air… he wasn’t. If Justin wasn’t interested he would’ve noticed. Beyond that, going to Justin right now and risking another member of the academy knowing he was involved with Justin would be risky. If they knew him anything happened to their scythe would be traced back to him first. He had to wait. Moving to go by unnoticed, his plan was almost instantly ruined. 

“Saw?” Fuck. Fuck Fuck Fuck. Freezing in his footsteps he looked back at Justin and the other man staring at him with a strained frown. He didn’t want to deal with them both at the same time… especially because the teddy bear freak didn’t look particularly happy to have cut off their one way conversation for him. At least the fact that Justin called for him meant he was interested enough in Saw not to just ignore him as he passed by. That was really the only good news here.

“Hey when did you get here?” The scythe was standing up, looking to move through the rather crowded town square towards him… abandoning his conversation and making everyone aware of what was happening with his far too loud voice. Saw was freaking out. This wasn’t what he had planned at all. An entire fucking crowd of people, including someone who clearly knew Justin in some capacity, had just witnessed their connection. That they knew each other… this was a disaster.

“H-Hi… uh… aren’t you kind of busy kid?” Saw’s voice was far quieter than it ever really was, begging to not draw more attention to them. Justin didn’t get the hint that he wanted this to end as quickly as possible and came over anyway, leaving the other man behind without a second thought. It was starting to seem like Justin was less interested in him and was really just using him as an excuse to leave that conversation… Great… this was not the situation he had wanted to end up in. 

“No I’m not, I wish I was though.” Justin sounded exhausted saying it, making it obvious that he yes, what he was really looking for was getting out of that situation and was relieved he had found the enchanter to help him. Saw could only feel his lips twitch into a pathetic smile… he really should’ve seen something like this coming. Someone was bound to see them together eventually, if he wanted to use Justin as a hiding spot like he originally intended it kind of banked on others realizing they were dating. Still with everything else going on the actual moment of which there was no return felt far too stressful. He might have been sweating a bit. 

“Not having a very fun break then?” The smallest bit of a smile started to peel up Justin’s lips, hardly there but still so beautiful that Saw felt his throat close up the slightest bit. He had thought for sure that he had stopped seeing Justin because the kid didn’t want to be seen for whatever reason, but maybe that was just how he worked. Before all of this finding Justin had been fucking impossible so maybe he just… disappeared by habit, easily distracted by work or some shit. There was really no telling with the brat.

“Justin what’s going on?” Just like that Justin’s little smile dropped again and he looked back at the man he had abandoned that was now coming up to them. Saw wasn’t really surprised that he was looking for an answer as to why the scythe had just bolted, but at the same time he really wished the guy could take a hint so this conversation wouldn’t happen. 

“Ah, Tezca this is Saw, we’ve gotten together as of late.” The man, Tezca looked shell shocked, completely taken aback and disbelieving of what he had heard. As seconds passed he looked like he became almost… mad. Saw could feel sweat running down his back, shit. He didn’t want to deal with whatever this was. This wasn’t what he signed up for at all. That woman was fucking right, this was something you’d have to bet someone to do. To think he had originally been planning for this to be his safe haven. 

He just had to keep reminding himself that it’d be worth it, that he’d get what he wanted out of this if he just played it safe and carefully until it was time. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around… how did you meet?” Tezca’s voice screamed distrust, Saw couldn’t see the guy’s face past the stupid mask but he didn’t need to. He could just feel the awful glare he was getting. A few seconds past with no answer, no response and the man seemed to move into an even more aggressive stance. Saw was quickly finding himself at a dead end, he couldn’t admit that he fucking hunted Justin down like he had, that’d only spell trouble… but what else could he say? Justin was right here and would call him out if he gave a lie. 

“Just in passing, kept endin’ up in the same spot.” Justin mercifully didn’t say anything despite the fact that he had already called Saw out back at the bar for chasing him down in search of winning a bet. Something told him that Justin was just looking for anything to get Tezca off his back right now and would go along with pretty much whatever. A small mercy. Still Tezca didn’t look entirely convinced. What a complete pain in the ass. The man moved to say something else, but Justin cut him off.

“I do know other people Tezca, no reason to be so suspicious all the time.” Justin’s voice was an amazing type of firm that gave no room for question, powerful and sharp in a way that didn’t make sense on a twig like him but also made him all the more attractive. It also said a lot about the other guy with how he immediately deferred a bit, clearly displeased but not interested in further upsetting Justin. There was definitely a lot more that Saw needed, and honestly wanted to learn about this kid. 

“Yeah but it's not like you to be around… such people.” It took a lot for Saw not to start to laugh right there and then. The jab didn’t bother him at all, in 800 years he had heard it all- especially in the lives where Death wasn’t as prevalent and could really stretch his legs out and get some of his disdain for these bootlickers out in a less than kind way. More than that though it was fucking rich that this creep wearing a fucking bear mask like a pervert was calling him out on not being a model citizen. 

Moving to wrap one of his arms around Justin’s waist he felt the kid stiffen up before accepting and leaning into it, cooperating like a lovestruck school boy or maybe just so desperate to get Tezca off his back that he was willing to turn this into a PDA session. The latter sounded a lot more likely. Tezca sort of jumped back, his overly animated posture screamed out his shock that someone was touching Justin. Saw would be lying if it didn’t stroke his ego a bit to have managed something that everyone seemed to find impossible.

“Aw what do you mean by that? Do I really seem so bad to you?” Saw’s voice wasn’t too obviously mocking, but it was there. Tezca definitely picked up on it from the way his hands twitched and his fingers moved with all his nerves. Without any expression to go on Saw really wasn’t sure if Tezca was outraged or embarrassed… there was a real threat of things getting really bad here. At least until Justin sighed tiredly twirling his headphone cord in his finger before looking up to Saw with a strikingly beautiful pair of eyes that somehow managed to completely disarm him. 

“You do seem that bad, but that just means you need to prove how good you are. I’ll vouch for you so don’t ruin my credibility here with your ego.” Justin’s hand caressed his chest before moving up his neck and holding his face with overly gentle hands. It was overwhelming, it was shocking, Saw was barely thinking of the fact that they were being watched right now he was so caught off guard. Justin knew what he wanted here and he was losing any kind of shyness to get it done. 

This was proof Justin was going to use him as much as he’d use the kid. That he wasn’t being entirely crazy every time he felt like there was more behind Justin’s cloudy eyes. It was obvious now that this was a marriage of convenience, Saw had convinced him with some fun and a bit of coddling but now that the scythe had the time and space to really think about all of this he had realized what he could do with this… what a tricky bastard. He was really fucking something. The smile that crawled up Saw's face felt different than it had in longer than he could remember.

“Tezca.” The strength and unquestionableness in Justin’s voice made Saw fucking salivate, there was power coming off this kid that didn’t fucking make any sense until he remembered this  _ baby  _ was the academy’s executioner. Tezca seemed to stiffen up, not really pleased by being called on like a dog but not saying anything either. To be fair to him Saw would probably have to take a second to figure out how to handle it as well, Justin really knew how to quiet any argument before it could even be made. 

“I want to teach Saw a bit of what's acceptable here, we can talk again later.” With that Justin threaded his hands in Saw’s own before starting to tug him off somewhere else, leaving Tezca confused in the town square. Saw was more than a bit scared, he couldn’t tell what Justin was planning here at all… this guy was too unpredictable, too hard to follow. He was moderated and controlled in a way where he clearly was practicing a type of psychology here, planning every word just so… but Saw was having a hard time taking it apart and seeing what was going on. 

The smile on Justin’s face was snake like, somehow sweet and villainous at the same time. There was something Saw was missing right now, a plan he didn’t quite understand and couldn’t get himself to think of while the blonde was pulling him away. As much as he hated to admit it he was  _ excited _ . He had no idea what Justin was doing but he could tell whatever it ended up being was going to be more fun than anything else this stupid fucking town had offered him in the last mindnumbing month. A sharp smile bloomed on Saw’s face as well and he found himself quickly falling to play along.

“So where have you been little one? I didn’t think you were just going to disappear after we went through all of that.” The air went sour as Saw’s words ended up sounding a lot less teasing as he had wanted and made him seem almost hurt. He wasn’t even sure why they sounded that way, he wasn’t upset about any of this, why did that come out so dejected? Justin stopped for a second, his smile falling and being replaced with a soft confusion. The strong suffocating power the scythe had been carrying them with turned a bit hazy and left them with the silent feeling of the city moving around them as their interaction went quiet. 

It was foolish of them to try to understand each other without words, but neither of them understood this situation enough to break the silence. Saw hadn’t been expecting such a reaction to his question, but it really seemed to have caught Justin off guard. He couldn’t decide if that was sad or not, if this reaction had to do with something painful like the scythe’s eyes seemed to indicate… or if he was being tricked again. The odd upset coming off of Justin didn’t seem to be coming purely in reaction to Saw’s sad tone, he looked too uncomfortable by that for it to have invoked the deadly seriousness that came over his posture.

“I didn’t know you were looking for me, was I hard to find?” Part of Saw wanted to scream  _ yes _ \- to yell about how Justin had been so impossible to find from the very beginning of this. He wanted to break their weird quiet and turn this into a situation that he’d know how to deal with better… but at the same time he didn’t want that and even if he did, he couldn’t do that. Saw was willing to bet quite a lot that there was no distracting Justin from this with a loud noise or simple change of subject. This was seeming like another instance of what happened back at the bar, slightly different this time but also with Justin acting like… well acting like Justin. Saw didn’t know how else to describe the mannerisms. 

“You are. Honestly I still don’t know whether or not you're a ghost that only appears once every 3 days to haunt me.” It was a bad joke, a shitty attempt at lightening things back up a bit… it sort of worked, Justin gave a bit of a half smile, but honestly it just served to make Saw even more uncomfortable. He hadn’t even realized it himself until now, but that was kind of how Justin was feeling to him, a sweet colored nightmare adding to the slow burning fire inside of him. One of his legs moved backwards, making him trip as he tried to back away subconsciously. Justin caught him with cold hands that made sure he didn’t fall and solemn eyes.

Saw’s tongue tasted like frozen steel, sticking to the soft membrane of his palate and daring to rip his entire mouth to a bloodied pulp if he dared to try and say something to interrupt this moment. This memory. This had to be a dream. All of this. Even coming to Death City felt like a delusion at this point. Death had finally caught up to him, starting his revenge for having Arachne’s soul ripped from his bloodthirsty grip. A revenge that started with blue eyes and a misplaced confidence. 

“Saw? Did something happen to you?” Saw’s heart was pounding through his ears, his face was pale and he was practically limp and dead in Justin’s hand, it really said something about the scythe’s strength that he wasn’t letting the far heavier man slip from his grasp and pass out onto the floor. Justin sounded legitimately worried now, trying to pull Saw back up to his feet, dismissing whatever pains had originally come over his mind and started all of this, now focusing on making sure Saw didn’t fall. Concerned about the enemy here. Concerned about him.

Death’s zealot, a child who would bleed him dry with a glowing white smile that found pride and an idea of holiness in even the most heinous of acts. 

Someone so evil that worry shouldn’t even exist in his heart, much less directed at someone like Saw. Lord Death always pressed for no one to look anywhere else but the future, to not focus on the past and what he had done to the world in order to shape it to his image. For Justin to be a Death Scythe, and above that an executioner… he shouldn’t have the ability to look at the world for what it was, to look at anyone else as anything but a means to an end. He shouldn’t be looking at Giriko like this.

With affection, excitement, teasing, worry, concern,  _ fear _ . There wasn’t supposed to be anything but hate inside that blue. Giriko had been ready for this to be hard, to be high risk, he had been ready to be filled with rage and hatred. He had been expecting to get a sadistic pleasure messing with Justin and the academy at best… a horrible and merciless execution at worst. He thought he was ready for anything. He thought he went into this knowing and understanding every outcome that could happen. 

If he had known this was a possibility he never would’ve accepted. Never would’ve risen to the challenge. There was no going back though. He had formed something there was no getting rid of. 

An understanding, a connection.

Proof the other side was as human as him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of those chapters where I can't tell if it sounds any good or not but that i don't really know how to change either? I did my best ok ;-;) Next chapter should be soonish as I'm already drafting it and it should be clearer and less messy than this one ;-;


	9. Death Scythes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long time no update :0
> 
> I had to take a break from this for multiple reasons (world affairs, depression, school, lack of inspiration, etc.) but I have a planned ending for this that I want to get out there so let it be known even with occasional big breaks this is not discontinued, I just go at my own pace sometimes

Saw was a master at dealing with emotions he didn’t want, and by that he meant he was really good at getting incredibly angry at anything he disliked. Anger was the emotion he had the most experience with and knew how to cope with the best, so turning everything into that was a pretty fool proof way for him to get through life with only a slightly scarred liver. 

Sadly in this case he couldn’t completely vent his rage out at Justin, the source of his confusing fucking misery. He still needed the brat close enough to get his work done. So, the easiest way to make it through was bullying. Bothering and teasing the guy enough that he got huffy and upset but never enough that he’d just leave. 

It was a fine line to find in all honesty. Justin wasn’t the type to shy away from just standing up and leaving. The first time it had happened Saw was so shocked he didn’t really know what to do, for a second he thought Justin would come back shortly and waited there like an idiot before he realized no, Justin was just gone. He spent the entire night staring holes into the floor wondering what the hell he was going to do and what could happen if Justin somehow decided to get revenge. 

The next day he had seen Justin again, working on something in the academy’s offices, talking in a low tone with another Death Scythe. Out of chance they met eyes and Saw felt his fucking fight or flight response fire up without mercy. He stumbled back as Justin looked over to the woman he was speaking with to hand over his papers and make his way over to Saw. The panic flaring up in Saw’s soul was unlike anything he had ever felt, and then Justin just smiled.

_ “Did you want to do something today Saw?”  _ It was like nothing happened. Justin didn’t acknowledge the fact he had left at all, that he had gotten so pissed off and upset that he had thrown Saw in the dust. Part of Saw wanted to bring it up himself, to get mad Justin had made him panic so much it wouldn’t be a surprise if he lost some hair just out of the sheer stress of it, but he didn’t want to risk it either. He learned pretty quickly that he wanted to get Justin to the point where he wrinkled his nose in disgust and made ugly disapproving faces, but not to the point where his face got weirdly serene and dangerous. 

That disgust was what he wanted, what he was looking for, and yet right now he was just sitting here on a Death Scythe’s fucking couch  _ with  _ said Death Scythe in his lap cuddling into him. Justin had fallen asleep on him a good while ago, drooling on his shoulder and having completely lost his elegance in his sleep. It was actually pretty shocking, Saw had expected Justin to look infuriatingly put together 24/7 but apparently once he was unconscious he really just turned into the tiny brat he was. 

The fact that they had even gotten to this point is what Saw kept sticking on though. How the hell was he here? It had been one thing flirting with an academy member and trying to trick them, but sitting here with a cuddly executioner who was all warm in his lap was certainly something else. If Saw wanted to he could just end this brat’s life right now… it’d be a bad idea considering they had already been seen together and he couldn’t run for the hills because of Medusa’s snakes… but he  _ could _ . Justin trusted him enough to sleep in front of him… 

What a little moron… 

Seriously, how the hell had he become a Death Scythe like this? Did they just feed the brat souls on a silver spoon because he was a guillotine and they wanted one for Lord Death’s ego? Surely not considering people in this town seemed to be scared of him and respect him, but god it was hard to imagine Justin being anything beyond just threatening. 

He had to be missing something here… something about Justin everyone else seemed to know that he hadn’t managed to dredge up yet. It was hard to imagine what that could be though. Saw knew Justin was an executioner, Medusa had already dropped that bombshell on him, but that alone didn’t make Justin intelligent or even that deadly. Those bastards were cowards that tied down their victims to not have them fight back as they committed horrible fucking cruelities. They didn’t need to actually be strong with all the restraints in their favor and other weapons dragging back their victims for them. 

At least that’s how it  _ was _ . Saw had been staying far away from this for a long fucking time so shit might’ve changed, it probably had changed honestly. For one, Justin didn’t seem to be one of what had originally been a team of executioners. Saw had been expecting, and dreading, to have to deal with Justin being the underclassman to a bunch of blood thirsty bastards… but there didn’t seem to be anyone besides Justin. It seemed to be an almost entirely obsolete practice now besides the  _ one _ stupid brat still doing it that Saw had of fucking course stumbled upon. 

Although there were the Death Scythes now, what had originally been Death’s partners had become his underlings and he sat on his ass all day as they did his work for him… so maybe they were what became of the executioners… and that would be why Justin was also listed under that title. Saw wasn’t sure, there was a lot of fucking information he was missing here that he couldn’t really ask about without giving himself away. Well unless he wanted to talk to Medusa… which he really didn’t want to do. 

Saw started a sigh that got stuck in his throat when Justin made a little noise back, moving to get more comfortable, curling up and resting his forehead against Saw’s vulnerable neck. Maybe Justin wasn’t the only idiotic one trusting this to happen right now… Saw really didn’t know what the fuck he was doing anymore… He had agreed to Medusa’s request in hopes he could fuck this kid up… but yet he was just letting Justin nap instead of torturing him in anyway. 

Part of him said he was just waiting until the timing was right. Medusa had asked him to get Justin’s keys, to be able to hand them over to her the night everything was planned to go down. He had done the first step of that, managing to make it into Justin’s house where he would put his keys down unattended to… but he was kinda pinned down by the scythe’s sleep heavy body and unable to snag them from where Justin placed them on their hook. Even if he wasn’t though, stealing them this early on would be a mess, they had to get closer to the day of before he could try and sneak them out of the brat’s grip. 

Surely he was just waiting until then so he could make sure everything went according to plan… What other reason would he have? Poking Justin’s cheek the scythe huffed and disappointedly, began to wake up, clearly never having been entirely asleep with how fast his eyes opened into a tired glare. Maybe Justin didn’t trust him as much as Saw had been assuming. Getting up so fast from just a gentle poke had to have meant Justin was never asleep there… what had he been doing? Waiting for something? Saw didn’t let any possibility go dismissed as impossible, he couldn’t afford a screw up with someone so into Death’s myth.

“Well? Stop staring and tell me what it is. I can tell you're thinking of something and I hope you didn’t decide to poke me for no reason.” Justin’s voice was curt and annoyed, far too upset about being poked as if he wasn’t a brat with little cheeks everyone probably wanted to squish. Saw would be amazed if he was the first one to do that even just this year. Death Scythe or not someone had to have dared to take that chance, even if just that creepy bear guy from the other day.

“It really wasn’t anything I’m just fucking bored.” Justin’s face hardened into something even more annoyed, if that was even possible, but luckily took it entirely at face value and didn’t pry into the shit Saw  _ was  _ very much thinking. Instead he just huffed and stood up, making Saw feel weirdly cold without having the scythe as a goddamn blanket. Any disappointment or complaints darted away from his mind though when Justin began to unbutton his jacket, deciding to take it off now that they had already been inside for at least an hour.

“If you are so bored feel free to leave, I invited you in under the assumption that you wanted to be here.” The arched eyebrow on Justin’s face only got more pronounced when he noticed how at attention Saw was now that he was taking fabric off. Saw didn’t have any shame about it and didn’t try to look more casual once he was caught, he was interested in doing something more fun here and he was fine with Justin knowing that. 

The kid was dense enough that he didn’t immediately put together  _ what  _ had caused the sudden focus, not until he finally let his coats slip from his shoulders and Saw gave a dirty grin. The reveal wasn’t really all that exciting, Justin was fucking wearing long sleeves and long pants under it, his pale neck was really the only skin that Saw could see that he hadn’t been able to before. Although, Justin’s shape was easier to see now without the stiff fabric and he was fucking lithe and feminine, a size that would fit amazingly under Saw’s hands… fucking perfect. 

“Well you certainly don’t seem bored now, I’d ask what happened if it wasn’t so obvious Saw. How dirty you can be.” Justin’s voice was somewhere between disappointed and amused, undoubtedly mocking but Saw couldn’t give less of a fuck of what a zealot thought of his libido. Thankfully Justin didn’t seem interested in pushing that angle either and giving him some kind of lecture about holiness or whatever they associated virginity with over there in crazy town. 

“I’d be even less bored if you were to take more off, it's your own home so why be all uncomfortable in uniform?” Smiling widely, not even trying to hide the lecherous tinge of his voice or expression Saw unbuttoned the top button of his shirt in an attempt to encourage Justin to do the same. Sadly the scythe only rolled his eyes. 

“Yes it seems like you would be, this is good enough though, I can’t just give you everything you want can I?” The shock and confusion from that took a second to process in Saw’s mind, he spent a second just staring before snorting in amusement. What a little shit Justin was.

“Why the fuck not? Spoil me, it’ll be fun.” Saw wasn’t really the type to look for someone to give him something, he was more the type to push them over and take it by force… so the words ‘spoil me’ had surely never passed through his lips before, but this was a weird enough case that he excused the small give of power. Justin didn’t seem all that interested in it anyway so it wasn’t like he had to put up with that. 

“But then you’ll just leave, I’m not done playing yet.” That… that twisted Saw’s heart up weirdly. It actually went so far as to make his chest ache but before he could address it at all Justin was already moving along. The scythe moved up onto his lap again, this time forcing Saw to lean back so he could meet their lips, not nearly as shy around these things as Saw would’ve thought. He  _ certainly  _ wasn’t expecting Justin to be responsible for their first kiss, but damn he wasn’t complaining, less work for him after all. 

Grabbing onto Justin’s waist with greedy hands he smirked at the bright little chirp of shock he got in response. Damn that was cute, Saw wanted to hear more of those noises forced right up out of that tiny throat as he fucked the brat into oblivion... Growling into the scythe’s mouth he pushed Justin down onto his rapidly developing hard-on and laughed maliciously when Justin broke their kiss off to shriek in shock. 

“I bet a good little kid like you has never felt something like this before, huh?” Holding Justin’s hips down so he couldn’t pull away Saw forced the scythe to grind down and really feel how hard he was getting. Whether or not this went anywhere, it was worth the frustration to see how  _ red  _ Justin’s face was right now. 

A couple seconds passed with no response from Justin, the poor brat’s eyes were spinning, he was fucking short circuiting from this… Saw grimaced at the mess that was quickly developing in front of him… Ok maybe it was a mistake to push this hard this fast, he really hadn’t been expecting that he’d have to deal with a breakdown going into this though. How old was Justin again? Medusa had said 18 right? He supposed this made sense, or at least guessed it did, who knew what century Saw had last had to deal with a virgin. 

“Hey calm down, you're freaking out way too much for starting this shit.” That seemed to snap Justin back to attention, the scythe sort of jolted and looked around for a second, trying to remember where he was now that he was out of his own weird mind. What a handful… couldn’t he just be normal when it came to  _ anything _ ? Even if it was just for long enough to get a load off? 

Saw sighed as Justin finally began to relax and got up awkwardly… He was sort of expecting this to end without any satisfaction, but  _ still _ . One of these days he was going to get in Justin, this teasing just made that a fucking _goal_. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone annoyed this fic won't just get to the action already; you're preaching to the choir, the reason I keep putting this fic off is because I'm so tired of all the foreplay here and just want to get to the drama

**Author's Note:**

> One of my absolute favorite things about Giriko is Saw, we see Saw for about 3 minutes but he brings up sooo many questions. Did he live his lives as polite and mild mannered as he was to Maka when they met to stay in hiding? Was he originally the calm and patient Saw and turned into the Giriko we know and love as he spent 800 years brewing in hatred? I LOVE the implications of Saw and I really wanted to dig deeper into who he could've been, hopefully this fic will let me do that and you'll all enjoy ;v;


End file.
